NANA began working with the oil industry on Alaska’s North Slope in 1975. Thirty-seven years later,
we are still going strong. Four NANA companies recently mobilized to support ExxonMobil in development
of Pt. Thomson, a multi-billion dollar natural gas project. With our acquisition of GIS Oilfield Services
and the founding of NANA Australia in 2012, NANA continues to broaden and deepen our experience
in services to the oil and gas industry all over the world.
Not only does our NANA family of companies bring world class skills to the oil and gas industry, we also
bring our excellent record of safety, our corporate values, and commitment to constant improvement to
meet the needs of our clients.
While our company expands its business capabilities, we also expand employment opportunities. There are so many interesting
jobs in the NANA family of companies, but we need to make those opportunities more visible to our young people – how can you
aspire to be what you can’t see? Please share this magazine with your children so they can read about the many career paths that
NANA offers – or show them the new NANA YouTube site, where there are videos about the work NANA’s companies do.
We appreciate your hard work and effort, and look forward to success for all of our companies, and for you, in 2013.

Helvi K. Sandvik
President, NANA Development Corporation

Editor’s Note
Oil and Gas is the focus of this issue of NANATKUT. With more than three decades serving the oil and
gas industry, NANA’s history is closely aligned with oil production in Alaska.
Writer Tim Bradner walks us through the formation and evolution of NANA, from the early days of providing
catering services on Alaska’s North Slope, to a company that has expanded to include security, camp
management, hotels, engineering, transportation, construction, fuel delivery, maintenance, staffing and more.
Today, our oil and gas operations can be found from the North Slope of Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico and now
Australia. In every location we serve, we bring our NANA values, a culture of safety a the reputation for excellence.
Our companies and their services continue to expand and improve. NANA Management Services (NMS)
and NANA Oilfield Services (NOSI) were both formed in 1975. NANA Construction and NANA WorleyParsons have practices
and procedures that set them apart from their competition. Our newest addition, GIS Oilfield Contractors, a Louisiana-based
company, brings 60 years of oilfield service to our NANA family.
If you don’t see someone you know in this issue, keep looking. Future NANATKUT stories will highlight our federal government work,
engineering and construction, facilities management and logistics, IT and telecommunications, hospitality and our world-class
Red Dog Mine. We love hearing your ideas and comments. Contact us at nanatkut@nana.com.

NMS On the North Slope
Delivering Safety and Services
By Charles Fedullo
On Alaska’s North Slope, where much of NANA Management
Services’ (NMS) Camp Services work takes place, the summer
sun doesn’t set and the mosquitoes are thicker than honey.
In winter, the sun goes into hiding and temperatures can
drop to numbers thermometers do not register.
Alaska’s North Slope is home to the majority of the State’s
oilfields. Most of the oilfield employees fly to their job sites,
work a week or two for 12 hours a day with no days off, then
they head home for the next seven to 14 days. While it may
be unique to some, to NMS’ North Slope employees, it is just
another “day” at the office, and they’ve been doing it for more
than three decades.
Since its inception during the height of the Trans Alaska Pipeline
construction in the 1970s, NMS, which was first known as
NANA Commercial Catering, has been providing services to our
oil and gas partners on the Slope. What originated as a food
services contract has evolved into more opportunities, and
NMS has expanded its portfolio to include security services,
camp management, hotel management, facilities management,
maintenance, housekeeping, water technologies and contract
staffing. NMS experienced steady growth over 35 years in
response to client needs, by providing quality solutions and
personnel along with a culture of safety and integrity.

Innovation is part of the success, as well. NMS Director
of Operations, Dave Grinde, has been with NMS for close
to 35 years, and has been working in support of resource
development in Alaska since serving in Africa in the Peace Corps
in the mid 1970s. He uses that experience to help guide NMS
management practices. “We have intentionally shifted our focus
toward creating workplace conditions where employees feel
valued, cared for and respected. This effort involves specific,
intentional, leadership behaviors, especially at the level of the
first line supervisor.”

People-based Safety
On the Slope, safety has to be priority one, so NMS uses an
academic safety system developed by Virginia Tech professor
E. Scott Geller. This system, known as “people based safety,”
involves strengthening self-esteem, self-efficacy, personal control,
optimism and belongingness in employees. Grinde describes it
like this, “We must always remind ourselves that these ’person
states‘ are the primary drivers of individual performance and that
keeps us anchored in our belief that treating people right is the
foundation of our performance strategy.”
He said the method works, especially with a need to perform
perfectly around safety. “We need to be ever vigilant but we

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LEFT :

With more than 35 years of experience

in providing security services to some of
the world’s most technologically-advanced
companies, NMS continuously improves
to meet constantly changing demands.
NMS Security workers Brendon Goulet
and John Kelly are responsible for dispatch
operations and access control to sites on
the North Slope.
BELOW:

NMS is a known leader with high

safety standards, which have been nationally
recognized by the industry and clients.
NMS maintenance worker Burton Whitaker
conducts a routine system check at the BP campsite.
OPPOSITE :

NMS is proud to serve not only oil & gas clients for more than

35 years, but an increasingly diverse clientele including federal, state and
local governments, corporate facilities, health care institutions, schools and
universities, manufacturing centers and the telecommunications industry.

find using people based safety, if we treat people right, work
hard on relationships, and use NANA’s core values, fulfilling
commitments and treating people with dignity and respect,
the rest falls into place.”

Appreciating Simple Things
Life and work on the Slope is not easy. Eric Fox, NMS’ vice
president of operations for Camp Services, understands because
he lived it for 15 years. While on the Slope, after a long, hard day
of work, he appreciated simple things — like a good meal and
a clean room. Today, Fox manages more than 600 employees
who provide services to more than three times that number.
He recognizes that not everyone is cut out for this kind of job.
“You have to have the right fit,” he said. “We need people who
want empowerment, are flexible, and who care about others.
Passionate — you have to be passionate about what you do
to grow with NMS.”
For every job on the Slope, there are two workers. These two
employees work in tandem so the client only sees a different
face — not a different product. The goal is what Fox calls a
“standard of excellence.” Hiring the right people and providing
the right motivation pays off.

Two-week Rotation
There is something unique about this kind of work for the
culture of NANA’s shareholders. The two-weeks-on-two-weeksoff rotation allows more than a quarter of NMS Camp Services
employees to maintain a subsistence lifestyle, which involves
picking berries, harvesting fish, and hunting caribou or moose.
The effort to make the Slope a home away from home goes
a long way. “It’s not just about putting food out,” said NMS
president Mary Quin.“ Our people make a real effort during

holidays and other special occasions to create a fun, friendly
and festive environment — after all, the workers are far
from home and whether it is Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving
or Christmas we do a little extra with decorations or special
treats, like gingerbread houses.”

A Safe Workplace
This approach is what NMS vice president of marketing
communications Penny Cotten refers to as “Making excellence
routine to our customers by being a silent backdrop, providing
great food, hospitality and maintenance for a safe workplace.”
The hard work translates to results. NMS has more than five
million man-hours without a lost time incident. BP’s safety
manager for the North Slope, John Buford, calls Fox’s team
“the hardest working people on the North Slope.”
Fox said, “I am blown away by the work they do. By the end
of their 12-hour shift, our folks do more than many folks in the
same industry will do in a week.” He continues, “To be honest,
the best thing about my job is watching people flourish. Seeing
members of my group get a promotion, buy a house or just
seeing them grow as people…that makes it worth coming to
work in the morning.” z
nmsusa.org

As NANA refocused on building its presence in the oil industry,
it seemed wise to seek opportunities close at hand, as well
as internationally. As it turned out, opportunities within
opportunities presented themselves to NANA Oilfield Services.

its customers: a 1.2 million gallon fuel oil storage tank farm
near the Deadhorse Airport. The farm fulfills the customers’
needs, regardless of weather or disruptions in service due to
the transportation of the fuel.

The federal government changed specific fuel regulations a
few years ago, requiring the use of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel
(ULSD) for trucks, buses, construction and service equipment
on the North Slope. This change in regulations caused
the shutdown of the topping plant that had been locally
producing diesel for use on the Slope. The new ULSD fuel
had to be trucked up the Haul Road, creating the potential
for costly delays.

The facility consists of six 200,000-gallon tanks, and
operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days a year.
Historically, NOSI provided services for smaller-scale projects,
but having the excess storage capacity of the farm has
enhanced the company’s capabilities and, therefore,
its customer base. NOSI’s clients now include ExxonMobil at
Point Thomson, as well as ENI Petroleum and Pioneer Natural
Resources — companies with significant exploration and
development projects.

Tank Farm
During the winter of 2010, the 414-mile gravel road was
closed for a number of days due to severe weather. For NOSI,
that closure provided an opportunity to add a new service for

In the fall of 2012, NOSI’s 1.2 million gallon fuel oil tank farm
was built on the North Slope by NANA Construction.
The tank farm allows NOSI to meet customer needs 24/7,
year-round, despite weather or fuel transportation disruptions.

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ABOVE:

North Slope clients have relied on NOSI for more than 35 years. NOSI’s new Operations Center was built by NANA Construction with

multi-functional spaces for safety trainings and store products like jet A and B aviation fuel, diesel, heating fuels and gasoline.

“We don’t ever want to hold up our clients’ operations
because of a delay in fuel delivery,” said Brad Osborne, NOSI
president. “This tank farm is a safety net, an insurance policy
if you will, that NOSI will provide continuous service.”
“At the end of the day, it’s about numbers and matching it to
strategy,” said Osborne. “How do we get to where we want to
go efficiently, but also have long-term results? We’re always
looking at opportunities for growth.”
In addition to supplying fuel oil, NOSI distributes Chevron
lubricants, A and B aviation fuel, diesel fuel, and gasoline
on the North Slope, and at the Red Dog Mine located in
northwest Alaska. It also distributes drilling fuel and potable
water to camps all over the Slope. Until last year, those
products and delivery vehicles had to be stored outside, but
with temperatures dipping to -50° F, trucks had to be kept
at idle, 24 hours a day, and keeping track of inventory was
difficult. At that time, Osborne’s role was as an investment
analyst for NOSI’s parent company, NANA Development.
The NOSI management team communicated that while they
needed to track a monthly inventory, it was difficult with the
products being kept outside.

In 2010, NANA Construction, another NDC company, built a
six-bay operations center in which to store the products and
delivery vehicles. The new building also has a multi-purpose
meeting room that provides safety training space for North
Slope employees. In addition, NOSI updated its inventory
tracking system which has improved the entire process —
from placing orders to generating invoices to giving customers
a more accurate delivery time.
These upgrades and expanded services have made NOSI more
efficient. But it’s the more than 40 dedicated employees, many
of them NANA shareholders, who are what make and keep
the company successful. North Slope working conditions are
unique and, at times, very difficult. The weather contributes to
the challenges, and the two-week rotations can be a strain on
family and social lives. To address the unique issues, NOSI has
expanded its Laborer Training Program, hiring more workers
prior to the upcoming busy season, allowing workers to
learn the ins and outs of the North Slope: driving conditions,
additional safety rules regarding the tank farm, and adjusting
to the rotation schedule.

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“I’ve always wanted to work
for NANA, and NOSI feels like
being part of a family,” said
Michael Moose, NOSI truck
driver and NANA shareholder.

Before becoming NOSI
president a year ago,
Brad Osborne was a NANA
Development Corporation
(NDC) accountant and,
more recently, an investment
analyst who led the due
diligence process for
the purchase of three
NDC companies.

Positive, Productive
Michael Moose is one of those new employees. The 21-year-old
NANA shareholder, who grew up in Anchorage and whose
mother is from Kiana, came prepared with his Class A
commercial driver’s license when he applied at NOSI earlier
this year. He has spent several months in the training
program, delivering small fuel loads, and he hopes to
eventually drive large rigs up and down the Haul Road.
“I’ve always wanted to work for NANA, and NOSI feels like
being part of a family,” said Moose. “Still, some here have
a tough time adjusting to the two-week-on, two-week-off
schedule, but I don’t have a family of my own, so I love
having the time off to travel outside of Alaska. In fact, I’m
getting ready to go to Las Vegas, and I don’t even have to
take vacation time,” said Moose.

Snyder and her husband, Clarence, a 26-year NDC employee,
are affectionately called “Mr. and Mrs. NANA” by Osborne.
“I always feel so appreciated by Brad,” said Snyder. “He does
have high expectations of his staff, but he’s always positive
and the results speak for themselves.”

Moving Forward
And when it comes to having an eye for opportunity,
Osborne’s vision for NOSI goes beyond Alaska.
“Our job is to continuously move NOSI forward, whether
with more projects or better customer service. There’s
always room for improvement, and when you think you’re
there, that’s when you slow down,” said Osborne. z
nanaoilfield.com

Employees like Moose, who have a positive attitude, are
greatly appreciated. Osborne, who has a reputation for being
a great man to work for, believes that when you have happy
employees, your overall productivity is better. Just ask his
assistant, Angela Snyder, who has worked for NDC for 14 years.
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Vision, Partnerships and
Diversification Drive NANA’s
Path to Success
By Tim Bradner
From humble beginnings 40 years ago, NANA has
emerged as one of Alaska’s major oil service contractors,
and plays a major role in industry services in the U.S. Gulf
of Mexico, as well.
NANA’s growth and development has attracted
international attention. The corporation is now
exploring opportunities in Australia, where petroleum
and mining companies look to involve the country’s
indigenous people in their businesses. NANA’s
experience as a corporation owned by Alaska Natives,
coupled with its track record of training and employing
its Iñupiat shareholders in good-paying skilled and
professional jobs, makes the company an ideal resource
and partner for other oil and gas companies.
The path to success was not easy, however, and there
was no guarantee that NANA would succeed.
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OPPOSITE (TOP):

Charlie Curtis

stands before a congregation of
shareholders; seated at the table
are Christina Westlake, Richard
Baenon and Levi Cleveland.
OPPOSITE (BOTTOM):

Robert Newlin

and John Schaeffer.

When NANA was first formed
our shareholders, who had little
business experience, had to
adapt a new way of thinking;
they now had to run a corporation.
They had to learn how to elect
leadership, run board meetings,
make business decisions and
vote. Traditional values of
cooperation, honesty and
integrity and treating everyone
with respect have guided NANA
from the beginning.

1960s -1970s
Oil is Discovered, but Who Owns the Land?
The late 1960s and 1970s were eventful times in Alaska.
Oil was discovered on the North Slope in 1969 and
major companies planned an 800-mile large-diameter
pipeline— which would become the Trans Alaska Pipeline
System—running from the North Slope to a port at Valdez in
Southcentral Alaska. The pipeline route crossed lands claimed
by Alaska Natives in Northern, Interior and Southcentral
Alaska and the federal government had imposed a freeze
on Alaska land transfers, including a pipeline corridor,
until the issue of who owned the land was settled.

NANA’s early leaders helped
forge an alliance with the
petroleum industry that
resolved the land claims and
helped secure congressional
approval for the pipeline.

Alliance Formed
NANA’s lands were in northwest Alaska, not on the North
Slope or along the pipeline route. However, NANA’s early
leaders helped forge an alliance with the petroleum
industry that resolved the land claims and helped secure
congressional approval for the pipeline. The Congressional
passing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971
and the Trans Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act in 1973
transformed Alaska.
NANA Regional Corporation was one of 12 Alaska Native
regional corporations formed in 1972 that, collectively, received
45 million acres and $962 million in the land claims settlement.

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We’re in Business, Now What?
The new Alaska Native corporations had land and some cash,
but little experience in business, and Alaska Natives, living in
rural Alaska where jobs were scarce, were still low income and
largely unskilled. NANA’s initial efforts to provide employment
for its people revolved around investing in the region. One local
business included a hotel in Kotzebue, which was replaced in 2012;
another was in reindeer herding, a venture since dropped.

Job Creation
NANA was blessed with good leaders who devised an early
strategy to develop business relationships with the emerging
Alaska oil industry, which by the 1970s had become Alaska’s major
economic engine. “Following passage of ANCSA, our leaders felt
we needed to establish businesses in the region to create jobs,
but the business opportunity was really on the North Slope,” said
Helvi Sandvik, NANA Development Corporation president.

Businesses Serve Oil Industry
John Rense, a long-time NANA vice president, said going after
work on the Slope was a shrewd move. NANA took advantage
of its good relations with the oil industry that stemmed from
the alliance formed in the settling of land claims and securing
approval for the pipeline. At the time, the industry was keen

on doing business with Native corporations in order
to mend fences after the early disagreements on the
pipeline land corridor.
“The oil fields could provide jobs. It was an opportunity,
and NANA was able to get out in front and seize the
opportunity,” Rense said.
NANA’s success in developing early commercial relations
with the oil companies set a model that also helped
other Alaska Native corporations establish their own
business relationships.

NANA was blessed with
good leaders who devised
an early strategy to develop
business relationships
with the emerging Alaska
oil industry.

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NANA Partners Up
NANA’s presence on the North Slope began in 1975, through
a joint-venture food service contract with BP — a major North
Slope oil producer. This contract became the springboard
for many of NANA’s subsequent ventures and, interestingly
enough, it is still in effect almost four decades later, although
NANA’s partners have changed through acquisitions.
NANA’s partnership was originally with Marriott; now it is
with Sodexo, one of the world’s largest facility management
firms. NANA Management Services, or NMS, services the
contract. NDC owns 51 percent; Sodexo owns 49 percent.
The contract transformed from only providing food services
to include security services, facilities management, and
staffing services—and it set a model for NANA. “It allowed
us to start in the business, learn skills and move to higherpaying work,” Sandvik said.

small part of the field. It was built on artificial gravel islands
in shallow water, and it required moving huge oil process
modules to the site over gravel roads and a causeway to
the production islands. Endicott was a two-year project that
involved the full range of surface facilities for the field. It was
also the first time that a construction contractor managed
the movement of the heavy oil process modules to the site.
Today, NANA owns a small percentage of the Endicott field,
which illustrates the level of trust that was established with
the major oil producers.

Capabilities Expand

The NANA/VECO joint venture tackled several other major
Prudhoe Bay field projects, such as construction of the
Lisburne production center. NANA, VECO and other partners
also teamed up to form a drilling company, Alaska United
Drilling, building two large, specialized rigs.

Meanwhile, NANA developed industry support capabilities
in other directions. An industrial camp was purchased at
Deadhorse, the main contractor support center on the
North Slope. NANA purchased a fuel supply business, which
still operates as NANA Oilfield Services, and a small electric
utility that has since been sold.
A breakthrough for the corporation came when VECO Alaska,
a major oilfield support company, approached NANA to
partner on oil-related construction. VECO was looking for an
alliance with an Alaska Native corporation.
“This was an important move,” Sandvik said. “Food service and
catering supplied jobs for our shareholders, but it was lowmargin, low-wage work. Doing oilfield construction moved us
into higher-paying work.”

Oilfield Construction
One early joint project with VECO was construction of the
Endicott oilfield, the first offshore field on the Slope. In 1979,
BP approached NANA to put in joint bids for offshore leases
in a state lease sale. NANA put together a small consortium of
several Native corporations to join in the bid. The group won
the leases, exploration was successful, and NANA still owns a

Some of NANA’s earliest job opportunities for shareholders

“Twenty-three percent of the workers on the project
were shareholders,” recalled Pete Leathard, VECO’s former
president. NANA’s Rense remembers that some of NANA’s
current board members worked on that project and received
their early, first-hand experiences with oilfield construction.

The venture wasn’t as important for profits as it was a symbol
of a long-term strategic partnership. “We had a seat at the
table when decisions were made. It helped us learn more
about how these companies, who are our major customers,
do their work,” Sandvik said.

“What has made the difference
for NANA was the ability to
see ahead of the competition,
to develop a basic strategy,
and then stay the course for
40 years.”
—John Rense, NDC Engineering,
Construction & Real Estate sector leader

were on the North Slope. These were hard, physical jobs as
roustabouts, or laborers for the oil companies. Subsistence
life requires physical conditioning and dexterity. The rotation
schedule, working in shifts on and off the Slope, allowed,
and still allows today, shareholders to earn a paycheck
working remotely while maintaining a subsistence lifestyle
of hunting and gathering to provide for their families.

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Like other Alaska Native
corporations, NANA expanded
into federal government
contracting, taking advantage
of provisions granting
minority-owned businesses
preference in bidding for
certain types of work.

1980s -1990s

NANA Construction built the Bank of Alaska’s Sand Lake branch
location in Anchorage.

It was an abrupt wake-up call, steering NANA to
develop a diversification strategy that has worked well.
Rather than immediately launching into new types of
businesses, NANA worked with its partners to diversify
within the existing lines of business. For example,
the catering and facility partnership with Marriott grew
into a series of jointly-owned hotels in Anchorage and
Fairbanks. The NANA-Marriott hotels are now well-known
features of the business landscape in Anchorage
and Fairbanks.

NANA moved into oilfield engineering through a 1995 joint
venture with Colt Engineering, a Calgary-based firm. This further
diversified NANA’s business base, allowing access to industry
work in Alberta through Colt. When WorleyParsons, an international engineering firm, purchased Colt in 2005, NANA had
a new partner with a worldwide reach.

With Alaska’s boom-bust economy, business was precarious.
When oil prices fell in the mid-1980s, and again in the late 90s,
and when zinc prices tumbled and froze right after opening
the Red Dog Mine, NANA once again adapted.

Like other Alaska Native corporations, NANA expanded
into federal government contracting, taking advantage
of provisions granting minority-owned businesses preference
in bidding for certain types of work. This allowed NANA to
gain experience in a very different business sector, with a
new customer base and new geographies. The preferences
are only temporary, so the businesses are managed with
the expectation to be fully competitive in the marketplace.

“When our customer hurts, we hurt, too,” said Sandvik.
“We realized we were vulnerable. Eighty percent of our work
was coming from oil.”

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2000s
NANA Refocuses on Building
Oil Service Businesses
With a larger and more diversified base, NANA refocused on
building its presence in the oil service industry. It formed NANA
Construction Company, which builds camps and fabricates a
wide variety of production facilities at its plant in the MatanuskaSusitna Borough, north of Anchorage. The strategic location
of the facility allows for shorter travel distances when moving
completed modules by truck to the North Slope. The initial focus
was on production facilities, but the company later expanded
to also build housing camps. In mid-2012, NANA Construction
completed its first camp for an oil service company on the Slope,
and is working on additional modules for the camp.

NANA has further positioned itself for the future through the
purchase of GIS, a major oil platform maintenance and support
operator in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. GIS has more than 60
years of experience, and operates seven fabrication facilities,
supplying about 60 percent of the U.S. Gulf offshore service
work to about 3,000 platforms, including the bulk of the deepwater platforms in the Gulf.
“The GIS acquisition followed a two-part strategy,” Sandvik said.
First was geographic diversification. Secondly, it was a move
to a new type of customer — services to offshore platforms and
support for shale oil development — an emerging business for GIS.
NANA is thinking ahead to the emergence of an offshore
producing industry in Alaska’s Arctic, where Shell and other
companies are drilling exploration wells in what could become
a major producing region.
“GIS gives NANA a new core competency in servicing offshore
platforms,” Sandvik said.

NANA Builds off Its Knowledge
“NANA’s strategy has been consistent,” Sandvik said. “We build
off our knowledge. When Prudhoe Bay was first developed in
the 1970s, we were a traditional people, and our skills were
modest. We learned skills and then moved to higher-paying
jobs. It was similar in business.”
Rense believes all of this illustrates the value of strategic thinking.
“What has made the difference for NANA was the ability to see
ahead of the competition, to develop a basic strategy, and
then stay the course for 40 years,” he said.

Today, NANA has 45 companies providing important
support services at projects in all 50 states, in seven
countries and on four continents. Shareholders, like
Sophie Mercure, who works for NANA Construction,
and the other 11,500 NANA employees are positively

Thanks to that vision, NANA, its shareholders and its partners
have not only survived, they’ve thrived in one of the most
challenging and resource-rich climates on earth. And they’re
taking that knowledge and partnership approach from the
North Slope to the Gulf of Mexico to Australia. z
TIM BRADNER IS A NATURAL RESOURCES WRITER FOR THE ALASKA JOURNAL
OF COMMERCE.
nana-dev.com

impacting the communities in which they live.

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NANA Mobilizes
Point Thomson
Natural Gas Project
By Lana Johnson
At the northernmost point of North
America, along the Beaufort Sea,
ExxonMobil is developing one of the
most complex and challenging oil
and gas fields in the world, and NANA
WorleyParsons is a member of the
project team. Point Thomson, a 93,000acre field situated between Deadhorse
and the village of Kaktovik, is estimated
to hold as much as eight trillion cubic
feet of natural gas—about 25 percent
of the proven gas reserves of Alaska’s
North Slope—along with hundreds of
millions of barrels of oil.

Gas Injection
Point Thomson is the site of the world’s
highest-pressure gas injection project.
Gas injection, sometimes known as
cycling, is a process of producing natural
gas, stripping out the condensate liquids,
re-pressuring the gas and then
re-injecting it into the reservoir.
This project is very unique—the process

has never been performed in such an
extreme environment, with exterior
temperatures as low as 60+ degrees
below zero, and pressures as high as
over 10,000 pounds per square inch.

Multi-discipline Engineering
NANA WorleyParsons (NWP), part of the
Point Thomson team, is a project delivery
company that was formed through
a 50/50 partnership between NANA
Development Corporation and
Colt, which was later purchased by
Australia-based WorleyParsons. NWP is
focused on multi-discipline engineering,
design, procurement and construction
management services for the oil and gas,
power and mining industries.
For the $1.3 billion Point Thomson
project, WorleyParsons formed a joint
venture with Fluor Corporation, a
company with extensive large project
experience on the North Slope.
Through the joint venture, NWP will

provide engineering, procurement and
construction services—managing three
subcontractors and engineering the
modules for the west pad drill site and
the air traffic safety building (ATSB).
NWP will also be “force multiplying”
with other NANA companies: NANA
Construction will build the ATSB
modules, and NANA Management
Services (NMS) and NANA Oilfield
Services (NOSI) will support the project
with their respective expertise.
NWP also provides design, drafting and
documentation services for both BP
and ConocoPhillips, along with field
engineering work. Additionally the

NANA Companies are “Force Multiplying” at Point Thomson
In addition to NANA WorleyParsons, several other NANA companies are working to support the Point Thomson Project.
NANA Oilfield Services
(NOSI) will provide tank farm
management and supply Ultra
Low Sulfur Diesel and unleaded
fuel, urea, and methanol.

NANA/Lynden will be a
subcontractor for NOSI.

NANA Construction is

14

building the Air Transportation
Safety Building (ATSB) for the
airstrip at Point Thomson.
They are also working as a

82247 CCPL_.indd 16

subcontractor to another firm
to build three modules and four
platforms to house the electrical
equipment that support
the airstrip lighting. NANA
Construction will also construct
a blast-resistant office module.
Other NANA Construction
projects associated with the
Point Thomson field are a 39seat office complex for Alaska
Frontier Constructors, and an
80-bed construction camp for

Doyon that NANA Construction
will install at Badami.

NANA Management
Services (NMS) provides
all security for the Point
Thomson pad, the staging
area in Deadhorse, airport
screening in Deadhorse, the
security checkpoints on the
ice road, and bear hazing,
and has security supervisors
embedded in the Exxon

organization. In total this work
involves about 45 NMS Security
employees. There are 14 NMS
Staffing employees assigned
to temporary positions with
Exxon on the Point Thomson
project. NMS also has hotel
accommodation agreements
with Exxon, providing for a
total of about 260 rooms across
four different NANA-owned
hotels.

3/14/13 10:02 AM

Veteran Engineer
Rock Hengen Leads
NANA WorleyParsons
Leading the NANA
WorleyParsons
team is an affable
Canadian who loves
field work so much
that he’s away from
home as much as 70
percent of the time.
“I’ve always enjoyed going to where the
projects are being built,” Rock Hengen said.

company is involved in a process hazard
analysis on relief valves. “We have a
consistent focus on commitment to
quality performance,” said Rock Hengen,
president of NANA WorleyParsons.

outdoors, so a small gas escapement just
disappears into the atmosphere; on the
Slope, a gas escapement remains in the
internal environment, posing a health
and safety risk to workers.

Fire & Gas

Incident-free Safety Record

One of NWP’s specialty niches is its fire
and gas group. This group prevents fires
and detects any explosive substances.
It’s a matter of life and death on the
North Slope because everything is
enclosed to protect workers and
equipment from the extreme cold,
which can dip to -68° F in winter. Most oil
and gas facilities around the world are

NWP’s safety record is outstanding,
having accomplished a five-year,
two-million hour, incident-free record
with BP; and it’s about to celebrate a
four-year, incident-free milestone with
ConocoPhillips.
“We bring NANA’s core values to work
every day and they’re what make us so
different,” Hengen said.

LEFT :

NANA WorleyParsons’
experience working in
remote site locations is
an asset to a project like
the development of Point
Thomson on Alaska’s North
Slope. Extensive technical
expertise in Arctic and
sub-Arctic engineering for
remote locations, combined
with excellent project
management, is at the core
of NANA WorleyParsons, a
project delivery company
focused on multi-discipline
engineering and design,
procurement and construction
management services.

Hengen, as manager of projects, moved
to Alaska in April of 2009 to help the
company restructure after the industry
experienced major downsizing. As he
politely puts it, it was a period of challenge,
but the company now has a solid
foundation of safety, quality and project
performance. A year ago, he was asked
to make “a longer-term commitment,”
at which time he became vice president
and general manager. He assumed the
presidency in July of 2012.
“Rock is the perfect name for him,” said
Helvi Sandvik, NDC’s President. “He has
solid credentials and brings a significant and
distinguished background of leadership
roles, in projects large and small, in the
oil and gas industry.”
Hengen’s career began as a lead technician
for Dome Petroleum in southeast
Saskatchewan, Canada. But his path
changed course when, after one
particularly cold day (temperatures
dropped to minus 50° F with 55 mph
winds), Hengen decided he would “rather
not have to work in that environment
again.” He headed for warmer temperatures
in a classroom setting, earning a bachelor’s
degree in electrical engineering from the
University of Saskatchewan.
It is interesting to note that in 1994, as the
senior instrument engineer during the
startup of BP’s Badami production project,
Hengen got his first experience on Alaska’s
North Slope; Badami is Point Thomson’s
closest neighbor, and the two fields will
be connected by a 30-mile ice road.
15

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The Imperfect Storm:
Despite gale-force winds,
no injuries reported
as operations continued
By Frank E. Baker

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In mid- January, gale-force winds swept
across Alaska’s North Slope, creating 16-foothigh snow drifts and reducing visibility to
zero at times. Despite the extreme weather,
BP Alaska crews with Roads and Pads and
security worked around the clock to ensure
worker safety. In what North Slope veterans
called “the storm of the decade,” winddriven snow piled high against buildings,
trucks, well houses and anything else in its
path in mid-January.
Bryan Collver, manager of Land Fleet, Roads
and Pads for BP Exploration Alaska, said that
during the worst days of the week-long siege,
more than 30 people were out clearing snow
using virtually every piece of equipment
available. At times, visibility was reduced to
zero as crews fought to keep the main Slope
artery – the Spine road – open, as well as access
roads to gathering centers, flow stations, living
facilities and other field facilities.
“Despite Phase 3 conditions for about a week,
we kept operations going and there were no

his alternate is Mike Jordan—said about
75 security officers were providing
transportation and conducting patrols
and pipeline observations.
“They drove the buses behind front-end
loaders which would remove snow along
the way,” said Hibpshman. “Traveling at
about five-miles per hour and with mounds of
snow to clear, some of the crew changes took
several hours.”
From a meteorologist’s viewpoint it was
an epic event, perhaps what one would
categorize as a “perfect storm,” as winds were
drawn from a very high-pressure cell in the
Arctic to meet an extremely low-pressure cell
to the southwest in the Bering Sea, off Alaska’s
western coast.
“For two days straight the area received
sustained winds of 60 miles per hour,” noted
Ed Bracken, a BP meteorologist based in
Houston. “That’s an epic event in anyone’s
book.”

Winter Travel
Safety Tips
for Alaska’s
North Slope
During winter (Oct. 1 through
May 1) at a minimum, each
person must have a warm, heavy
coat or jacket with a hood or hat
that covers the ears, warm gloves
and warm substantial footgear.
Additional items: wool or
insulated pants, chemical
warmers and flashlight.
Remain hydrated and keep
nourished with snacks or

“Purcell Security did a phenomenal job in moving
workers around to work sites and making sure
they were safe.“

energy bars.
Perform radio check prior to
departure. Have some form
of two-way communication
when driving in the field.
Cell phone service coverage

injuries,” he said. “The Incident Management
Team (IMT) fully supported our efforts and
kept the oil fields running, while Purcell
Security did a phenomenal job in moving
workers around to work sites and making
sure they were safe.”
Collver said some Shared Services flights from
Anchorage were delayed or cancelled because
of the weather, but that it wasn’t necessarily
the availability of flights that was the problem.
“Because of snow drifting on the roads, it
was very difficult for the buses to get to the
Deadhorse airport,” he noted.
In accordance with company policy, drilling
operations were shut down during the Phase
3 conditions.
Purcell Security (NMS Security’s Alaska
operations) Captain Jim Hibpshman—

But for those on the ground – from Endicott in
the east to Milne Point in the west – the storm
was far from perfect, as field locations were
difficult if not impossible to reach.

is limited and should not be

“I have been on the Slope for 26 years and
I haven’t seen this much snow stacked up,”
commented Dave Huffman, a member of
the Roads and Pads crew.

still recommended.

“During the blow, I was escorting buses to
the airport and visibility was down to two
reflectors, sometimes five, depending upon
where you were.”
“With the number of people we have on
the Slope and all of the facilities we operate,
a storm of this magnitude could have been
disastrous,” said Collver. “But with good
planning, coordination and teamwork,
we came through it really well.” z

a reliable two-way communication.
While phone service has
been improved, radio is

Know how to operate the radio
and have access to a list of
emergency numbers for contact.
Protect each other. If you see a
disabled vehicle, don’t assume
it’s been called in. Take a
moment to check on the
vehicle and its occupants, if any.

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Components
of Success:
NANA Construction Delivers
By Charles Fedullo

Alaska’s North Slope is one of the coldest, cloudiest, windiest
places on earth. Winds often gust up to 60 mph for days on end,
and temperatures range from a high of 75 degrees Fahrenheit
in summer to -53 degrees Fahrenheit in winter. And the
weather can change in a minute. A place this dramatic requires
high-tech, innovative and flexible shelter for approximately
3,000 employees who live or commute there year round.

Modules for Arctic Environment
NANA Construction, one of Alaska’s major oil and gas industry
contractors, NANA conceived and delivered an intelligent
solution to keep workers safe and costs down. Meet NANA
Construction: the first company to build a shop that is specifically
designed to construct modules for this extreme Arctic
environment, and a way to deliver them safely, as well.
“This is the only place in Alaska that has been purpose-built
for this type of industry, and one of the few that builds for
extreme conditions in the North America,” said R.F. “Mac” McKee,
NANA Construction’s President. The NANA Construction
campus is located in Big Lake, Alaska, which is a 60-mile drive
north from Anchorage. The facility consists of a 20-acre spread
with several impressive buildings. There is a two-story office
for administration, locker rooms and break facilities for the

construction crews. Building the modules takes place
in two state-of-the-art buildings in the likes of which
mechanics, engineers, fabricators and construction
workers dream of working. The industrial or process
module assembly building is the size of an airplane
hangar with two 10-ton cranes; this is where modules
are pre-fabricated and assembled before being craned
or jacked, with industry specific equipment, onto trucks
ready to head north.
Building these special, Slope-ready module units is far
more complex than building a mobile home. Engineers
and designers must address issues such as temperature
swings from 100 to 150 degrees and winds that can gust
up to 80 miles per hour. “It can get to be 70 below zero
with wind chill. With today’s technologies and code
requirements, it requires more extensive engineering and
processes to build a structure that will protect everything
inside from the elements and have the quality to last for
30 years.” McKee said.
The implementation of particular techniques and
equipment became necessary in order to stay
competitive, and special processes for every facet

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of steel and pipe fabrication had to be put in place to meet the
strict requirements of Alaska’s oil and gas industry. Specialized
materials have to be procured for these NANA construction
modules, and building them requires state-of-the-art facilities.

A Culture of Safety
In addition to developing a highly efficient workflow and
producing a quality product for the Slope, NANA Construction
focuses on safety. Anita Archuleta, Vice President HSSE, says,
“We are working to be the safest company in Alaska and have
started several new initiatives that recognize hazards and assess
safety on every project to meet that goal. In addition, our
foremen and supervisors take a leadership role in promoting
NANA Construction’s safety culture.”

Strategically Located
The core group at NANA Construction is around 70 people, but
when major orders are received, the staff can balloon to about
200 personnel. It takes about three days to build a simple office
module, about a week to build a bunkhouse, and 10 to 12 days
to construct a kitchen module.

Doing it Right
“Most other similar facilities are in Anchorage, and were built
to do something else and then converted for use on the Slope,”
says McKee. “Not only are NANA Construction’s facilities built
specifically to do one type of work, the facility is closer to where
most of our modules go.” While the 60-mile drive to Big Lake
may not seem like much of an expensive drive to a tourist or
a commuter, when you are hauling cargo the size of a small
house, that weighs 100 tons, it can cost up to $75,000 dollars
a day to get it where it needs to go. The math is simple; having
the NANA Construction facility in Big Lake can save clients more
than $150,000 in delivery costs alone.
By providing clients with high quality products and costeffective delivery, NANA Construction is a key partner for the
oil and gas and mining industries. A commitment to safety is
reflected in the hiring of highly skilled, industrial construction
personnel who work in the safest work environment possible.
Communication with clients throughout the life cycle of
a project demonstrates a dedication to service. NANA
Construction builds more than just partnerships; it is building
the future of Alaska. z

NANA Construction President
Mac McKee
R.F. (Mac) McKee has more than 44 years of experience in
all phases of construction management. He spent a decade
learning the construction business in the field working with
small construction companies throughout his home state of
Ohio before joining Fluor Constructors in the late 1960s.
In the late 1970s, McKee served as the Superintendent of
Construction Services for the Wilmington, California Refinery
Expansion Project, which totalled $140 million and involved
more than two million direct field man-hours. Immediately
following this project, McKee served as the Superintendent of
Field Construction for Fluor Alaska, successfully supervising
the construction of Pump Station No. 7 of the Alyeska Pipeline
in Central Alaska. In 1975, he directed construction of the
Powerhouse/Vapor Recovery System at the Valdez Terminal of the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline in Valdez, Alaska; completing the complex
installation ahead of schedule and under budget.
McKee joined ARCO (Atlantic Richfield) Alaska in 1980 and spent
five years working as the Lead Construction Engineer responsible
for the execution of field construction at the Prudhoe Bay field
on Alaska’s North Slope. Notable projects from this time include
installation of Low-Pressure Separation Modules at Flow Stations
1, 2, and 3; Gas Handling Expansion Project; and Seawater
Treatment Plant.
In 1986, McKee went to work for VECO Corporation, an Alaskan
based company, as a Manager of Construction. During that time,
McKee served as General Manager of oil spill cleanup for the
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill; he was the liaison for all governmental
agencies and managed more than 10,000 employees. In 1990,
he became President of VECO Construction with management
responsibility for all VECO construction projects worldwide;
including Canada, South America, the Middle East and Russia.
McKee joined NANA in 2008, when he was asked to help establish
a new company from scratch. Under McKee’s guidance NANA
Construction is now delivering quality facilities and modules to
the oil and mining industries in Alaska.

nanaconstruction.com

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Road to Resources:
Alaska’s Dalton Highway
By Blythe Campbell
The Dalton Highway is an industrial
road that begins just north of Fairbanks
and ends at Prudhoe Bay —400 miles
across the Continental Divide, the Arctic
Circle and nearly to the shores of the
Arctic Ocean. The road was constructed
in just five months in 1975 to support
the construction of the Trans Alaska
Pipeline and the Prudhoe Bay oilfield, and
was closed to the public for many years.
After much debate, the entire length of
the Dalton Highway was opened to the
public in 1994.

The Bureau of Land Management
describes the highway like this: “The
road is narrow, has soft shoulders, high
embankments, and steep hills. There are
lengthy stretches of gravel surface with
sharp rocks, potholes, washboard, and,
depending on the weather, clouds of dust
or slick mud. Watch out for dangerous
curves and loose gravel. You may encounter
snow and ice north of Coldfoot any month
of the year. Expect and prepare for all
conditions. There is no cell phone service.”
Big trucks have the unofficial right of way,
and for good reason. They make up most
of the average 280 vehicles per day that
travel the highway.

Deadhorse / 8
Prudhoe Bay

7

Coldfoot 6

5

4
Fairbanks 3

2

1 Big Lake, Milepost 52.3
Parks Highway
The journey begins on the NANA
Construction lot where 10 to 100 tons of
prefabricated buildings are loaded on a
truck using cranes, rollers and/or jacks.
Before the rigs leave the shop, hydraulics
on the bed are used to lift it far enough
off the ground for the trip and all tires are
carefully checked. Depending on the trailer
and the weight of the modules, 18 to 100
tires are needed, and they are checked at
every stop on the journey. The weather
and load size dictate the length of the trip,
which can take anywhere from three to
seven days. Three to four pilot cars, a few
drivers and at least one push truck are
required for these huge loads. A push truck
has a 35,000-pound counterweight to help
the vehicle up steep grades.

Big Lake 1

Big Lake to Deadhorse
812.7 miles
22 hours, 3 minutes
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5 Arctic Circle, Milepost 115,
Dalton Highway
Twenty-five miles beyond the bridge, drivers
cross the Arctic Circle. Along this imaginary
line, the sun stays above the horizon for
24 continuous hours at the summer solstice
on June 21, and stays below the horizon for
24 continuous hours at the winter solstice
on December 21.

6 Coldfoot, Milepost 175,
Dalton Highway
2 Denali National Park, Milepost 237.4,
Parks Highway
The drive from NANA Construction to the North Slope is more than 800 miles — further
than traveling from Atlanta, Georgia, to Chicago, Illinois. The first section consists of the
scenic Parks Highway through Denali National Park where, on a clear day, you can see
Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak at more than 20,000 feet.

4 Yukon River Bridge,
Milepost 56, Dalton Highway
Bridges are a challenge and there are more
than twenty on the Haul Road. A driver has
to slow down on the bridges and, in some
cases, have state regulators watch them
cross. The Yukon River Bridge is a quartermile long with the Trans Alaska Pipeline
fastened underneath it.

The next stop for most drivers is in Coldfoot,
about 200 miles north of Fairbanks.
Coldfoot is the last place to get gas,
food and other supplies for 240 miles.

8 Deadhorse, Milepost 414,
Dalton Highway
Public access along the Dalton Highway
ends at Deadhorse, but modules and
equipment destined for the oilfields pass
through a security gate before making
their deliveries.

3 Fairbanks, Milepost 356.8,
Parks Highway
It usually takes about seven to eight
hours to travel the 300 miles from NANA
Construction’s yard to Alaska’s second
largest city, Fairbanks. Eleven miles north
of Fairbanks is the junction with the Elliott
Highway, the next stretch of road on the
more than 800 mile journey, and 73 miles
further is the junction with the Dalton
Highway — the only road to Prudhoe Bay.

Running parallel to the pipeline,
these 414 miles are one of the
most isolated roads in the United
States. The Dalton Highway
begins north of Fairbanks and
ends at the Arctic Ocean.
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NANAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Louisiana Purchase:
The Workings of GIS
By Ted Griggs

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In 2011, NANA Development Corporation (NDC)
purchased GIS, a Louisiana-based company that focuses
on maintenance and repair work in the Gulf of Mexico.
The purchase was part of NANA’s vision to expand into
other geographic markets and to gain the expertise
needed to continue capitalizing on the opportunities
available in Alaska’s upcoming offshore oil and gas
business. The transition from exploration to development
could take a decade, so NDC is using this time to build its
offshore experience to demonstrate it can serve that sector
of the market.
With the purchase of GIS, NDC has added a wealth of
oilfield services, both offshore and onshore, to its portfolio.
GIS’ project management teams’ design capabilities cover a
wide range – from a simple set of stairs to critical additional
support a platform requires to handle a 600-ton drilling
rig. GIS’ six fabrication yards turn those designs into reality,
churning out 3,500 to 4,000 projects each year, ranging in
size from $500 to $2 million.
GIS has also moved into the servicing of oil and gas
companies in massive, onshore shale formations in Texas,
Ohio and Pennsylvania. In those areas, GIS teams are
constructing concrete well pads, building and maintaining
entry roads to drilling sites, and even putting together
the 30 million gallon impoundments that hold water for
fracking operations.

Once drilling work
NANA shareholders have the
is completed, GIS’
opportunity to experience working at
GIS, our Louisiana-based company that
environmental services
group moves in, cleaning provides maintenance and construction
to the oil industry. Shareholders
hydrocarbons from
learn transferable skills like welding,
tanks and vessels, and
construction and fabrication from some
decontaminating pipes
of the best in the industry. These are
tainted by naturally
important work skills our shareholders are
occurring radioactive
able to utilize anywhere in the world, from
material. A fabrication
Red Dog Mine, to Prudhoe Bay and the
project typically begins
Gulf of Mexico.
with a call from a large
client, such as Shell, BP
and Chevron, or one of
several smaller companies. “For example, a call comes in
because a flow line has blown out offshore,” said
Scott Dubois, manager of GIS’ Galliano Fabrication Yard.
“They need it built as quickly as we can build it. If it takes
working all day and working all night, we get it built.”
A GIS project manager works out the details with the
customer and produces a drawing. The fabrication yard
then goes to work, ordering the materials, building the
line, welding on the flanges, which allow the pipe to be
put together offshore, X-raying the welds, pressure testing
the pipe, sandblasting it, and giving it three coats of paint.
Once the line is completed, the Galliano yard uses its
80-ton crane to load the pipe segments — a flow line may
be ten feet long or 200 freet — onto a truck, which carries
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them to the GIS Fourchon dock around 25 miles away,
or to another waterfront facility.
Sometimes the project is too big to assemble in the
fabrication yard, so the yard performs 90 percent of the
assembly work, and then the pieces are trucked to a dock
and completed onsite. “The average flow line takes seven
or eight days to fabricate, and then GIS’ construction crews
install the line, a process that can take one day or as many
as ten, depending on how many lines are being changed
and the other issues involved,” DuBois said.

Offshore Expertise
“GIS’ core business remains maintaining, upgrading and
repairing offshore platforms,” President Mark Pregeant said.
“It’s what the company does best. For example, say a client has
a three-year-old platform that was engineered and designed
with a daily production capacity equivalent to 40,000 barrels
of oil. But new wells have since upped production to 50,000
barrels of oil. What we do is go out there and upgrade the
platform, put in bigger pipe, bigger equipment and on and
on to where it can withstand 60,000 barrels of oil a day.
That’s what we do every day.”
And that’s not all GIS does. If an offshore well’s production slows,
the client may ask GIS to install water injection equipment —
huge, high-pressure pumps that force water underground
and make the oil come to the surface more rapidly. Most of
GIS’ maintenance involves the typical work necessary offshore,
where valves, pipes and other structures corrode and pumps
and other equipment wear out more rapidly than on land,
and this is the kind of work that never stops.
An eight- to ten-person GIS crew handles repairs on the
smaller offshore platforms. The much larger deepwater
platforms, those in 2,000 feet of water or deeper, require
25-person crews. GIS also handles larger repair jobs involving
hurricane damage. The winds from these storms can tear
off gratings, stairs, and handrails, and have been known to
topple platforms. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina’s 175-mph winds
destroyed 115 oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico
and damaged 52 others. GIS was one of the companies that
provided the repairs and structural improvements following
the devastation.

“NANA plans to capitalize on
GIS’ expertise as Alaska’s offshore
oil and gas business moves
from the exploration phase to
development,” Helvi Sandvik,
NDC president, said.

“NANA plans to capitalize on GIS’ expertise as Alaska’s
offshore oil and gas business moves from the exploration
phase to development,” NDC President Helvi Sandvik said.
The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated more than 90 billion
barrels of oil and nearly 1,700 trillion cubic feet of natural gas
may be recoverable off Alaska’s coast. Sandvik said NANA’s
newly acquired offshore expertise will allow NANA to serve
that sector of the industry as it is developed in Alaska.

The Acquisition
GIS is NANA’s largest acquisition to date, furthering NANA’s
growth strategy through diversification. “NANA began
evaluating the Gulf of Mexico several years ago,” Sandvik said.
“The thinking at the time was that NANA might be able to
move some of what it does in Alaska to the Gulf. But we
very quickly realized that particular part of the world is not
unlike Alaska, in that you really need to understand that
marketplace, you really need to understand that geography.
And so we altered our strategy.”
Instead of shifting its know-how to the Gulf, NANA began
looking to buy a Gulf Coast company and its expertise.
NANA spent three or four years fully evaluating the marketplace
and becoming familiar with good companies, before identifying
GIS as a potential target. “As often happens in business,
the stars really aligned,” Sandvik said. GIS was looking for
a buyer when NANA came calling.

Focusing on Oil & Gas
GIS was founded in 1948 by Pregeant’s grandfather. The company
originally repaired commercial fishing boats. But as Louisiana’s
oil and gas business grew, GIS also began repairing boats
converted to service the rigs. Soon, GIS was well on its way
to focusing solely on work for the oil and gas industry.
Pregeant’s father and uncles eventually sold the company
to their sons. The third generation of Pregeants refined the
fabrication and service operations, integrating safety training
and adding other lines of business. In 2009, a private equity
firm, Huntsman Gay Global Capital, bought controlling
interest in GIS. Huntsman worked with GIS management to
add even more services, making the firm more of a one-stop
shop for energy companies, before selling to NANA.
Pregeant began working at the company 32 years ago when
he was 17. Before the sale to Huntsman, GIS did not have a
formal CEO. The family made all the decisions.
“We’ve kind of evolved along the way. I’ve been a big part
of the company the last 15 or 20 years,” Pregeant said.
“Before that I was just a good worker along the way and
sometimes a bad worker probably.”
Pregeant said he couldn’t take credit for the new services
added in the years he’s been CEO. “Those decisions came
about in all kinds of different ways,” he said. Pregeant said

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he actually resisted adding the instrumentation and
electrical business, which now employs 400 to 450 people.
As the story is told, a friend called and said there was an
opportunity: one company was buying another, and many
of the employees at the acquisition target did not want
to work for the buyer. The friend asked how Pregeant felt
about getting into instrumentation and electrical work.
“So one morning I woke up not wanting to be in the I&E
business, and about a week later I was in the I&E business,”
Pregeant said.

Safety Training
“GIS began working in the shale formations when a
customer ran into some safety issues with a contractor in
Texas,” Pregeant said. The customer asked GIS to provide
safety training there. That was four or five years ago,
and GIS is still in Texas. In addition to safety training, GIS
provides project management, construction, fabrication
and environmental services and offers the same services
in Pennsylvania and Ohio. “Mainly, GIS moved into areas
where its customers needed the help,” he said.

Employing NANA Shareholders
GIS provides new opportunities for NANA shareholders,
with about 20 shareholders traveling the 4,000 miles to
Louisiana to train for work as welders. “Any shareholder
choosing to deploy to GIS has the opportunity to build
skills that will be needed when that type of work
becomes available in their own backyard,” Sandvik said.
Eleven shareholders are still working in Louisiana, while
others are taking a break at home before returning.
Some shareholders have found Louisiana a little too hot
(temperatures in the fabrication shop can top 100 degrees
in the summer), but others are comfortable and thriving.
With the acquisition of GIS, new partnerships and
opportunities are forming every day. GIS has numerous
contacts in the industry, oil and gas companies that
respect GIS’ work and trust its brand. There is no doubt
that providing maintenance and repair services for energy
companies in the Gulf of Mexico will play a key role in NANA
Development Corporation’s effort to serve Alaska’s stilldeveloping offshore oil and gas business. And NANA will
continue to grow in ways its early shareholders may never
have dreamed possible. z
TED GRIGGS IS A FREELANCE WRITER BASED IN LOUISIANA.

ABOVE :

GIS was established in 1948 and has remained
a family-run company. Mark Pregeant, GIS’ CEO,
sits with Charlie Curtis, an NDC and GIS
board member from Kiana, Alaska.

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GIS is a robust service-oriented company serving the oil
and gas industry and providing a full range of construction
services, which include project management, offshore/
onshore plant construction and maintenance operations,
electrical and instrumental installation and maintenance,
and dock site support and services.

With more than 50 years of
combined Health, Safety &
Environmental experiences,
GIS offers training programs
to meet the needs of the oil &
gas industry. GIS works hard to
minimize the risks to workers
and developed the L.I.F.E. safety
program. Through the process of
Looking, Intervening, Facilitating,
and Eliminating, the objective is
to have zero injuries.

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NANA News
NANA WorleyParsons making
Big Waves in Canada
NANA WorleyParsons Fire and Gas has another opportunity
to export its expertise outside of Alaska. After successfully
engineering and designing a full fire protection system
for one of the mega power shovels in the oil sands of Fort
McMurray, Alberta, Canada, they were invited back for
another engineering challenge: fire protection for a floating
skimmer barge to be used on the effluent ponds in the
same Syncrude Canada, Ltd. development. Syncrude is one
of Canada’s largest producers of crude oil from sand mines.
The barge will constantly monitor the effluent ponds and be ready to immediately skim any
hydrocarbons that may venture into the area. The NANA WorleyParsons team met some unique
challenges, because the equipment is detached from land and operating in a harsh environment.
Client feedback surveys that noted “marked improvements in innovation” demonstrated that the
Fire and Gas Center of Excellence was true to its reputation.
This was not the first venture outside of Alaska. In addition to the power shovel, NANA WorleyParsons
Fire and Gas has completed projects in Egypt. Looking forward, they are also pursuing a relationship
with GIS in the Gulf of Mexico.

NMS’s Kiana Salad Bar
Video Wins National
Attention
When Dawn Kimberlin, NMS
food and facilities management
division director of marketing, put
together a three-minute video
about the new Kiana School salad
bar, she was hoping to win the
“Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools”
contest. Instead, the video
garnered national recognition
with a feature on the “Let’s Move!”
blog sponsored by the White House (http://www.letsmove.gov/
blog/2012/06/18/kiana-school-alaska-gets-salad-bar).
“Let’s Move!” is a health initiative launched by First Lady Michele
Obama dedicated to solving the problem of childhood obesity
within a generation.

NANA Construction HR director teaches
cultural values

NMS implemented the Kiana School salad bar in January to
overwhelming kudos, not only from the kids but also with teachers
and staff. Students enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables, including
pears, apples, oranges, carrots and lettuce every day. Kiana is a
village of about 375 residents, 57 miles from NANA’s home in
Kotzebue, Alaska.

Through the video NMS shows that salad bars are possible even in
the most challenging conditions, and thanks to Della Karmun and
the NMS Northwest Arctic Borough School District team, salad bars
are available in all NANA region villages during the school year.

Part of the orientation is a demonstration of nonverbal ways Iñupiaq
people communicate which might otherwise be misunderstood.
For example, a manager might become frustrated waiting for a response
to a question when, in fact, a raise of the eyebrows indicated yes.

www.nmsusa.com

nanaworleyparsons.com

“People learn a lot about our culture through this orientation. Senior managers tell me, ‘Now I understand.’”
Eye contact is another area where co-workers could feel “dissed,” or disrespected, says Moose. For the
Iñupiaq people, maintaining eye contact with someone — especially an elder in the community —
symbolizes disrespect.
“Managers and other employees need to know things like this. We want them to know things about our
culture that could easily be miscommunicated,” notes Moose.
During orientation training, Moose emphasizes NANA’s core principals which were adopted from
the traditional Iñupiaq values. “I reiterate the three core values of NANA, especially ‘Everyone will be
treated with dignity and respect.’”
Moose, a NANA shareholder from the village of Kiana, has served NANA and its companies for more
than 20 years. A guest speaker at numerous conferences, she was awarded the Governor’s “Removal
of Attitudinal Barriers,” Award in 2004.
nana.com/regional/about-us/mission/values/
nanaconstruction.com

NMS Staffing Opens Houston Office
When Tom Gilbert brainstormed opportunities for NMS Staffing, you could probably guess what was on his
mind: location, location, location. “Opening a branch in Houston was the logical choice for expansion,” says
Gilbert, who is Vice President of Operations. “Many of the companies we work with are headquartered in
Houston, with offices in the Woodlands. Having an office next door to these companies is where we need to be.”
Tom Kernan, General Manager for NMS Staffing in Houston, says that the location in Houston gives
NANA more opportunity to provide services to top notch clients. “We want the right clients – safe
clients who are also profitable.” According to Kernan, NANA runs a safety test on clients before sealing
the deal to work with them, to minimize risk of injury for employees and to maintain a good reputation.
NMS Staffing won a contract with Protect Controls, Inc., a manufacturer of Power Control Buildings which
house portable data center panels that are shipped to clients all over the world. Customers of Protect
Controls include large industry organizations such as oil & gas producers, refineries and petrochemical
plants. NMS Staffing provides recruiting, advertising and hiring services to Protect Controls.
After two decades of service to the oil and gas industry in Alaska, expanding to the Lone Star State
gives NANA access to a vibrant new market. “The market in Texas is competitive,” says Kernan. “But we’re
confident that we can attract great clients there.”

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Akima Brings Top Scientists to
Region Classrooms
Students in Selawik and Noorvik received hands-on lessons
from one of the country’s top security and technology
scientists. It was part of the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory’s “Fun with Science” program that introduces
elementary school-aged kids to the basics of science through
hands-on demonstrations. Lawrence Livermore’s mission is
to strengthen the nation’s security through development and
application of world-class science and technology.
Akima Infrastructure Services, LLC has the workforce contract
for Lawrence Livermore National Lab, so it paid to bring the
program to Northwest Alaska. Nicholas Williams, a retired
senior electronics engineer at the Lab who now teaches
“Fun with Science,” and Diane Nelson, the Lab’s exhibit
specialist, spent several days in the two villages.
“Not only are the students having fun with these experiments,
but they’re learning something,” said Williams. Their demonstrations
ranged from how electricity works to making elephant toothpaste.
“This was a tremendous opportunity for our students,” said
Selawik School Principal Platonida Kashatock. “Our culture is
very visual, and I believe most of our village students are visual
learners, so the experiments were great for them.”
This was the first time the “Fun with Science” program has
been taught outside of California.